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A comment on On my resignation as regulator of the Dutch intelligence and security services. Parent comment

Re:On my resignation as regulator of the Dutch intelligence ... by Bakary on Saturday September 10, 2022 @08:47AM (#32790131)
The 21st century humanist understanding was always predicated on a world order of massive inequality and international power balances. Now that non-Western countries are providing more competition, and Western countries are seeing their relative living standards drop, it's not a coincidence that humanist values are more wobbly than before.
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Re:On my resignation as regulator of the Dutch intelligence ... by vkou on Saturday September 10, 2022 @01:06PM (#32792479)
Doesn't even have to be an international power imbalance, a municipal one is sufficient.

Notice how the federal secret police is attacked in this thread, but as soon as I turn the conversation to the abuses of local police, HN consensus turns against me. People in the upper-middle class are afraid of the former, but have far less issue with brutality from the latter. The power imbalance it maintains is largely comfortable for us.

I find it quite hypocritical, but that's also not something that democracy makes any guarantees about.

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